Day 8 (Thrs., Sept. 8)

Today I followed Mike Stocker around. It was pretty cool as I was able to shoot the assignment w/ Mike being my coach. I learned a little about spot lighting and how to approach an assignment. I learned a lot about Mike and his family, which includes his wife Susan being a photojournalist w/ the Sun-Sentinel, too. Wow, talk about a competitive relationship. I shared lunch w/ both of them. They seemed like a perfect-fitting couple.

We drove around Pompano Beach looking to illustrate a story about how people in the community want the town to modernize. The above photo is of Mr. Bill Carlson, a business owner who wishes to have his lot move into the 21st century by w/ new architecture. Learning how to light the situation was cool. Mike showed me the importance of fill flash and how you can make a plain assignment look better w/ some cool lighting. The photo bellow served as a teaching guide from which I learned. He showed me what he was trying to teach me. Nothing like hands-on experience.

We drove around Atlantic Boulevard looking for things that said "improvement".

I shot the photo above for myself. I just thought it was cool how the car and building reflected on the chrome button. I never really thought it would be a photo for the story package. But once I got back to the office, editors said they liked it because it was "different". I guess staying alert and shooting what you think is cool can end up w/ some cool rewards. And what's more rewarding than praise?

I can understand why the people of Pompano Beach want to modernize. Some things around here were out of style. Like the camera painting outside a camera store in the photo above. Talk about old school.

Getting help from the professionals is good. I am getting to know them and I am learning about how they approach their assignments. I haven't shot much, but I have learned some valuable things.

Today is the 105th anniversary of one of the biggest Hurricanes in the history of the United States. It was Sept. 8, 1900 when an un-named hurricane reached Galveston, Texas. The destruction whipped out most of what was on the island and it changed it from a metropolis to a small island town. If you travel to Galveston now, you can see they have taken the right precautions for another hurricane. There's a tall sea wall that will serve as a way to keep the water away from the homes and business. Evacuation routes are set. In thinking about this, I wondered about how much we learned from that event and if that information would have helped out against Katrina more than a week ago. I just hope we've all learned from this catastrophe.

Today I got an e-mail from the president of Cal State University, Northridge. No, it wasn't a personal e-mail. She was directing herself to the CSUN community as they will be trying to fund-raise half a million bucks in five days. That's $100,000 a day. If you are Matador alumni, please make sure to do your part. If you're a student, I urge you to take part. We must remember that when the 1994 Northridge earthquake happened, everyone across the country came together to help us out during the time of need. Especially at the university, which had major damage. We now have a great media center in the attractive building that is Manzanita Hall as we show that we can bounce back from tragedy. It's time for us to do our part.

For more information about the fundraising campaign, call the Matador Involvement Center at (818) 677-3260.

Thank you!

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